Apparatus for plucking fowl



be of one-eighth horsepower or more and should rotate at a high speed,such as around 1500 R. P. M. The motor is provided with some sort ofhandle l8 by which the device may be manually propelled during theplucking.

In plucking mm in accordance with my invention, I .firstpreferablysemiscald the fowl by immersion in hot water at a temperature of around130, forthe purpose of loosening the feathers and raising them from thebody of the bird. As I have found that moisture on the feathers assistsin the operation of plucking the feathers with my device, I thenimmediately pluck. the feathers before they have had a chance to dry.

The manner of using my device is obvious from Fig. 1 of the drawing,and, as there indicated,

the fowl is laid on the'table and grasped in one hand while the pluckingdevice traverses the body of thefowl close to the skin to remove thefeathers as indicated. Whereas the device. is illustrated as being movedagainst the grainof the feathers, I have found that this is of no greatconsequence because aneifective plucking operation results from movingthedevice with the of the fowl in inaccessible areas such as under'device should be held at a slight distance, say

one-quarter or one-eighth of an inch above the skin. If desired, I mayprovide a guard to assist in gauging this distance and the guard maywell be in the form indicated in Fig. wherein I have shown a rod 50secured at 5! to the housing of the motor 4 and reverse bent to providea guide portion 52 extending closely adjacent the path'of movement ofthe strips. -The guide rod 52 is rested against the skin of the fowl andby rolling the device over on the rod 52 the desired clearance caneasily be maintained. As the pressure against the rod 52 may cause therod to engage the peripheries of the discs, I provide rollers 54 and 55on the rod 52 to rotate with the discs.

While I have described the plucking strips 20, 2i and 22 as beingsecured in the peripheries of the discs I and 2, I do not mean toindicate therebythat the ends of the plucking strips are exactly flushwith the bevelled edges of the discs. Thus as indicatedin Fig. 6, theperipheries of the discs may include a. band 30, of the width shown, oreven a much greater width, forced over the ends of the strips and theedges of the discs after the strips have been inserted in the discslots.

Obviously if desired my device may be provided with a suction hood forconducting away the feathers as they are plucked and instead of makingit amanually operable and portable device it may, by obviousmodification, be mounted on a bench and the fowl to be plucked movedacross the device. Regardless of how the plucking strips are secured inthe discs, I prefer to dispose them at a slight inclination to the axisof the device, as indicated, for I have found that the resultant obliquestroke against the feathers produces a somewhat gradual pull which drawsthe feathers more effectively than with the strips exactly parallel tothe axis; My invention is not, however, to be limited to such details,except as indicated in the appended claims.

I claim: J

1. A device for plucking fowl comprising a rotatable frame having stripmeans secured to its periphery and adapted to strike, the feathers ofthe fowl with a rapid succession of percussions when the frame isrotated adjacent the skin of the fowl, the said strip means havingnon-cutting edges to pluck the feathers. from the skin without severingthem said rotatable frame'being formed with side edges beveled toconform to the taper of a truncated conical outline and said strip meanslying within the boundaries of said outline and obliquelypositionedrelative to the axis of the frame, each strip means having oneouter surface substantially in flush relation to the beveled edges.

2. A device for plucking fowl comprising a rotatable frame havingstripmeans secured to its periphery and adapted to strike the feathersof the fowl with a rapid succession of percussions when the frame 'isrotated adjacent the skin of the fowl, the said strip means being spacedfrom the interior of the frame and obliquely disposed relative to theframe axis so that rotation of the frame directs the said strip meansobliquely v against the feathers.

3. A device for plucking fowl comprising a rotatable frame having stripmeans secured to its periphery and adapted to strike the feathers of thefowl with a rapid succession of percussions when the frame is rotatedadjacent the skin of the fowl, said rotatable frame being formed withtapered sides to conform to the taper of a truncated conical outline andsaid strip means being spaced fromv the interior of the frame so thatthe feathers can bend around the strip means when they are struckthereby and said strip means having non-cutting edges and being flexibleto obviate bruising of the skin of the fowl.

OSCAR H. CRAPO.

